Travel Reference
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way than just about anywhere in the Bighorn National Forest. The byway's eastern end (al-
though U.S. Hwy. 14 continues on) just west of Ranchester, where the Connor Battlefield
State Historic Site is located.
MM Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark
High atop a bluff in the Big Horn Mountains, some 70 miles (about a 90-minute drive) west
of Sheridan on U.S. Highway 14A, Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark is a
74-foot-wide stone circle with 28 interior spokes connecting the exterior with an interior
circular mound. Made of limestone slabs and boulders, the Medicine Wheel is a mysterious
landmark that has spiritual but unexplained significance to many Native American groups.
First seen by white explorers in the late 1800s, thoughts on its origins are vast and varied:
Some link it back to the worship of the Aztecs; others attribute it to early French or Russian
explorers. The most common viewpoint, however, is that it was built by one of the tribes in
the region: Crow, Arapaho, Shoshone, Sheep Eater, or Cheyenne. The star alignments sug-
gest the medicine wheel could have been constructed as early as the 13th century, and the
solstice alignments are accurate even today. The only carbon dating from the site, done on
a piece of wood, suggests a minimum age of 1760. There are tipi rings around the site and
worn travois trails to the site, suggesting heavy usage. Stone markers in the shape of arrows
point to a number of nearby medicine wheels, including those in Meeteetse and Steamboat
Mountain in southwest Wyoming near Rock Springs.
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